Proposed NY State Law Would Help Catch Distracted Drivers After a Crash

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The State of New York has proposed a new law that would allow police officers to test cellphones after a crash to see if the device was being used at the time of the incident.

Using a scanner, the police will be able to determine exactly when the phone was being used. If it was in use at the time of the crash, distracted driving charges and liability for the accident could land on the offender.

The law states that none of cell phone’s content, including text messages or photos, will be viewed in these scans. Drivers will be required by law to hand over phones after an accident or face immediate license suspension.

Regulators call it “Evan’s law,” after 19-year-old Evan Lieberman who was killed in 2011 by a distracted driver.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says that ten percent of fatal crashes, 18 percent of injury crashes and 16 percent of all motor vehicle crashes in 2014 were a result of distracted driving. That equates to about 3,179 people who lost their lives in distracted driving accidents in 2014.

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